Chris Feifs, the second-year head coach at Vermont, downplays the Catamounts’ first appearance in the top 20 since Feifs was in grade school. Feifs doesn’t shy away from talking about second-ranked Albany, which looks quite loaded and ready once again to rule the America East Conference, Vermont’s home for the past 23 seasons.

Led by redshirt senior midfielder Ian MacKay, senior defenseman James Leary and sophomore goalie Nick Washuta, the Catamounts (5-0) are off to their best start since their 1984 team opened the season with seven consecutive victories.

Feifs acknowledges that Vermont hasn’t exactly conquered Murderers Row while getting there. The Catamounts have dispatched Furman, Mercer, Fairfield, Holy Cross and Quinnipiac. Those opponents sport a combined record of 4-16.

But as he leads a program that, in its 41-year existence as a varsity sport, has never been to the NCAA tournament and has produced three winning seasons in the last 20 years, Feifs is focused on the nuts and bolts of a project he wants to build to last.

“The [No. 19] ranking just means we are making progress,” said Feifs, who previously spent seven years as an assistant at North Carolina, where he helped the Tar Heels win the NCAA title in 2016. “We’re trying to learn from winning. We want role players to step up. What I really like about this team is how tightly knit they are. We’ve got strong leadership on both sides of the ball.

“Albany is the best team in the America East and probably the best team in the country right now,” he added. “I think we’re a tough, blue-collar team like them. We both play in cold weather consistently and travel a lot. Some of our Canadian players play box against their Canadian players in the summer. We plan to give Albany our best shot [on March 17], but we have to respect all of our opponents.”

It was only two years ago that Vermont, under former coach Ryan Curtis, nearly broke through. The Catamounts fell to Hartford in the America East final 17-16 to finish with a 9-8 record.

The loss of MacKay to a season-ending foot injury early in the 2017 campaign marred Feifs’ first season in Burlington. Two years after earning Offensive Player of the Year recognition in the America East, MacKay’s successful return — he leads a balanced offense with a team-high 18 points (11 goals, seven assists) — has helped the Catamounts average 12 goals thus far in 2018. Vermont is shooting 38.5 percent as a team.

Defensively, the Catamounts are holding opponents to just 15.4 percent shooting. With defensemen such as Leary (10 GB, 5 CT), Jeffrey Warren (14 GB, 9 CT) and Andrew Simeon (19 GB) and Washuta showing the way, Vermont began the week ranked second in Division I in scoring defense, having allowed just 4.4 goals per game.

Washuta was recently named the America East’s Defensive Player of the Week.

Feifs said his decision to take the Vermont job was rooted in his past. As a young boy growing up in Durham, N.C., where in 2004 he would become the first scholarship player from that state to play at Maryland, Feifs spent numerous summers at Camp Dudley in the Adirondack Mountains town of Westport, N.Y. That town is located on the other side of Lake Champlain from Burlington.

“I had a really good vibe about this place. It felt like home to me,” Feifs said. “It felt like a place I could see myself going as a player.”

PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER

Varello Proving Invaluable for Navy

With unranked Navy’s offense going through growing pains, the presence of senior faceoff specialist Joe Varello has been invaluable to the Midshipmen (2-2).

Varello, who was a backup for three years behind Brady Dove, the most productive specialist in program history, has excelled since serving a one-game suspension to start the season.

Varello won 14 of 22 draws, including nine of 12 in the second half, to push the Mids to a come-from-behind 10-8 win at Boston University on Saturday. Jack Ray kept Navy in contention with five goals, and All-American Grayson Torain’s two goals in the final minute were the difference, but the Mids probably would have dropped their eighth straight Patriot League opener without Varello doing his thing in the clutch.

Saturday marked the first time Navy has reached double digits in scoring this year. The Mids are averaging just seven goals per game.

Varello, who entered this week ranked third in the nation with a 69.1 winning percentage, earned his second conference faceoff specialist of the week honor.

His absence in the season opener, a 12-7 loss against Jacksonville, really hurt the Mids, who controlled just three of 22 faceoffs. Varello returned at Maryland to win two-thirds of his draws, but Navy offered the Terps little resistance on offense in a 10-4 defeat.

Varello then dominated a 7-5 win against UMBC.

PHOTO BY JOHN STROHSACKER

Four Ranked Opponents Await No. 1 Terps

With Notre Dame coming to College Park for a Saturday morning battle with the defending NCAA champions, top-ranked Maryland (4-0) heads into the ramp-up portion of its nonconference schedule.

After putting down Navy, Marist, High Point and Penn by a combined 21 goals, the Terps will follow No. 5 Notre Dame with clashes against No. 2 Albany, No. 6 Villanova and No. 11 North Carolina, before beginning Big Ten play.

“We’ve had our good and bad moments. We grinded out [wins over] Navy and Marist, survived High Point (16-14 shootout) and played really well against Penn,” said head coach John Tillman, looking back at last week’s 13-6 rout over the Quakers, who then rose to No. 12 by upsetting then-No. 1 Duke.

“Getting the chemistry to jell has been hard,” he added. “We’re still working on a ton of fundamental stuff and looking for more consistency. What I like most about [getting to 4-0] is that it hasn’t been easy.”

With the considerable offensive turnover from last year, one player who is getting there quickly is redshirt freshman attackman Logan Wisnauskas, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound transfer from Syracuse.

Wisnauskas has started all four games and has bettered his scoring output each time out. His five-goal effort against Penn brought him his first Big Ten Offensive Player and Freshman of the Week awards. He leads the Terps with 11 goals.